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Published: November 13th 2006
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Durbar Square, Kathmandu, Nepal On Sunday morning, I tried desperately to sleep off my hangover from the Dahori, to no avail. Sam & I had breakfast at Hotel Harati before checking out & heading off to our next home, Hotel Utse. Spent time catching up on washing & internet before Sam's friend Wendy arrived. She was really late from the plane & we whisked her off almost immediately to the Kathmandu Guest House to meet up with the group & go explore Durbar Square. Mel, Mo, Deb, Wendy, Sam & I had dinner at Roadhouse, followed by an early night. Christine, Louise & Maddy all left Kathmandu today & I am sad because our group is beginning to disperse.
My temporary job as tour guide began on Monday when we met at Hotel Utse. First stop was Swayambhunath (Monkey Temple), where we walked up the hundreds of steps to check out fabulous views of the Kathmandu Valley from the top. Next was Patan, where we started with lunch in the serene garden restaurant before exploring Durbar Square. We ran into Goma, Shanti & Anjali at Pashupatinath, as a famous journalist was being cremated & they had come to pay their respects. We waited
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Durbar Square, Kathmandu, Nepal around for ages while they performed the various ceremonies inside the temple & watched another cremation in the meantime. We stayed long enough to see them bathe famous guys body in the river, but left as he was being taken to the cremation spot. The plan was to go next to Bouddhanath, however we'd all had enough from standing around in the sun, smelling burning flesh & caught a cab back to Thamel.
A large group met for dinner at the Everest Steakhouse, where I enjoyed my first beef (I think) steak in ages. Got to catch up with Jill again, which was cool & she even gave me a going away present, which was great. Met her two trekking companions & wished them a safe trip - they leave on Wednesday. Grabbed some sweets on the way back to the hotel & discovered the bakery actually doubles as a restaurant with fantastic looking sizzler steaks served with baked potatoes & sour cream - yummy. Will be going back there for my next steak fix for sure.
Another day of sightseeing on Tuesday was on the agenda & we met again at Utse & cabbed it, this
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Durbar Square, Kathmandu, Nepal time to Bhaktapur. Today it was only Sam, Wendy, Chris & I, but it was nice to have a small group for a change. While I purchased the entry tickets to, the girls scored us a guide for 100 rupee - bonus. His name was Paulo (not very Nepali I know), he had amazing eyes & was pretty nice to look at too, so although we weren't really looking for a guide, we decided we could handle perving on Paulo for a couple hours. It turned out to be a good decision as he was very knowledgeable & we learnt quite a bit. Did I mention he was nice to look at too... We farewelled hot Paulo & ate lunch in this peaceful little garden restaurant that Chris found. The food took a while, but we were in no rush & struck up a conversation with a Dutch couple at a nearby table.
The taxi ride home was a little more expensive because there was a strike on (supposedly larger businesses only - hah) & the guys figured they had a captive audience in us, which I guess they did - opportunistic buggas. Then the guy tried dropping us
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Durbar Square, Kathmandu, Nepal all off at the beginning of Thamel & tried to tell us it was one way traffic. Well, we knew better & although Chris was the only one continuing on, she stuck to her guns. I didn't find out if he ended up taking her all the way, but she managed to get back to her hotel somehow.
After a bit of internetting I met up with Mel, Mo, Deb, Sam & Wendy & we walked up to the Shangri La Hotel to check out the final night of the Jazz Festival. Jill had bought our tickets earlier that day to ensure we didn't miss out. We checked out the hotels casino before the Jazz & when we found out drinks, nibblies & a buffet were complimentary for punters, almost decided to skip the music altogether; except the tickets were bought & paid for - bugga. Had a great time at the Casino though; I learnt how to play Twenty one & bet on Roulette.
The Jazz Festival turned out to be fantastic & although I'm not a huge jazz fan, had a ball. We were the rowdiest table in the whole place & I still can't figure
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Durbar Square, Kathmandu, Nepal out how we didn't get booted out. Perhaps it was because we were the first ones up on the dance floor & got the place jumpin'! There was an afro haired muso from Brizzie performing as one of the final acts & you can imagine how much cheering he got. Apparently there's a video being produced of the night, so I can't wait to get my hands on a copy & see if we're famous. Went back to the Casino for a feed after the music, then piled into a cab & headed home all tuckered out.
A bunch of us met at Pumpernickle for breakfast on Wednesday morning to farewell Mel & Mo. Can't believe more of our group is going - will have to have a reunion in five years time; perhaps a different destination for something new. A good portion of the day was spent spending the donation money for Mukti Nepal. We raised about AUD$600-, which I think is a gread effort, so Deb, Sam, Wendy & I went up the hill for a visit to share the good news. It was decided to spend the money on six months of milk supplies, three
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Swayambhunath, Kathmandu, Nepal months of rice supplies & this weeks vegetables. I thought it was a good opportunity for the girls to visit the markets, so we all piled in the hatchback & hit the road. I'd pre warned everybody about Goma's driving, but there were still a few white knuckled occasions. To be fair, it's not that her driving is terrible (although there's certainly room for improvement), the traffic in Kathmandu is shocking & very scary when you're used to western roadrules; or any roadrules really. The markets weren't to skanky (like on my first visit - yuk), on account that it wasn't raining & although it took some time, I think the girls enjoyed the outing.
Sam & Wendy wanted to do some shopping, so we dropped them at the department store on our way back to Mukti. Deb & I continued on & assisted with the vegetable unpacking, had some tea, picked up the (empty handed) girls, then headed back to Thamel. Had some time to kill, so I painted my nails & rested a while before heading out to some organic place for dinner. I must admit the food was pretty darn good & the drinks were super
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Swayambhunath, Kathmandu, Nepal cheap; they must have been using local, rather than imported spirits - we couldn't tell the difference though!
Went to Pumpernickles again for breakfast on Thursday morning; this time to farewell Deb. We hung out & shopped till she had to go just prior to lunch. Remainder of the day I rested, then joined Sam & Wendy at the Third Eye Restaurant for dinner. Was pretty tired from a hectic few day & was glad for the early night.
Friday was again another quiet day spent chillin' & doing a few last minute things before Base Camp Tour begins tomorrow. We farewelled Wendy, who is off to do Intrepids two week Rajasthan (India) tour. It includes the Pushka Fair, which is apparently a big camel sale that attracts tens of thousands of animals each year. Of course there are the obligatory stalls & festivities & it's supposed to be a fantastic time.
Sam & I checked out of Utse & into our third & final temporary home in Thamel, the Kathmandu Guest House. Disappointment set in when it became apparent we would have no television, however that only made us get out & about sooner.
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Swayambhunath, Kathmandu, Nepal We headed out for a steak sizzler at my bakery/restaurant with the baked potatoes & sour cream. It ended up being a bit of a combined liquid lunch & after cashing up at the ATM & snacking in the room we decided it was a great idea to go out for some drinks. Fortunately it was happy hour at the Buddha Bar & they were serving two for one cocktails. We planted out butts there for the evening, just drinking & chilling out to the funky tunes being played. We also discovered Sheesha's & after much convincing it didn't contain illegal drugs, tried some. Not a whole one mind you, just a puff from our table neighbours, which was strawberry flavoured & very yummy too...
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